The parking lot is along the Red River, and the trail immediately heads up along the north shore. It's a scenic stroll, with the water rippling a short distance below. Exactly how far below depends on the season. In the dry months of August through October, the Red can often drop to very shallow levels. But given a week of rain, it can rise over the trail.

As a matter of fact, this hike should not be taken under wet conditions. In addition to the river section, the trail will become a quagmire along the Upper Adena Flat and the three creek crossings will become a knee high wade. We generally avoid this trail in Spring and after rains of several days. However, from June through September it is usually great.

Do not let the flowing river distract you. High above and slightly behind you tower the cliffs of Pinch Em Tight. High to your right is Chimney Top. Just across the river is the upstream corner of Adena Flat. And straight upriver is Hog Snout Rock, pictured at right.

You'll be looking at Hog Snout from several angles on both sides of the river. It is from straight ahead that the early settlers thought it bore a striking resemblance to the head of a male razorback hog. These wild boars were once plentiful in the Gorge, but hunting had already depleted their population, and the heavy timbering wiped out the habitat, thus eliminating what was left, so they've been gone for a century. Today, the only wild boar population in Kentucky is in the Big South Fork. However, Hog Snout Rock is popular for another reason. It juts out into one of the finest classic swimming holes left in Kentucky.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn couldn't design one better. The rock itself offers a wide, flat top ideal for soaking up the sun, but sloping down toward the deepest water so the dive isn't too intimidating. Three grapevines from the opposite bank allow swimmers to swing out and drop into the pool. The river right below the rock is deep and wide enough to allow legitimate swimming. Just downstream of the rock is a wide, gentle sandbar so kids can step out of the water and climb back up to that flat top. Just upstream of the rock is a steeper natural staircase winding up the backside of Hog Snout. The Red current slows enough here to allow inner tubers to bob in the bend with just occasional hand paddling to keep them from drifting downstream. The shallows just upstream of the bend allow the sun to warm the water enough to take the chill off, so it's refreshing without being icy. And there are several grottos between nearby boulders to allow privacy for changing clothes. Norman Rockwell couldn't picture a better swimming hole.

Across the bridge, the trail turns sharply right and drops down to the river. And here is perhaps one of the most unique sights in the whole Gorge, or even the state : The Red River Dunes. As in sand dunes. These may not compare to the windblown dunes hundreds of feet high in North Carolina and Colorado. These are waterborn and only several feet high. Nevertheless, seeing shifting sand in the middle of the forest, covered in October by falling leaves and surrounded in May by wildflowers, is bizarre.

On the other side of the trail is another rarity, this one botanical. Here is a surprisingly plentiful colony of Maidenhair Fern. The only Kentucky fern with a circular leaf pattern instead of the usual vertical stalk, Maidenhair is extremely delicate and is not usually found in such abundance along a heavily travelled path.

You hike through a boulder garden and pass within a few feet of Hog Snout Rock. Then the trail curves to the left and begins climbing the shoulder of Chimney Top Ridge. The famous rock formation looms directly above you, usually obscured by leaf cover. Chimney Top Creek appears below you, and what used to be Adena Meadows spreads out across the valley toward Pinch Em Tight Ridge. This 100 acre bottomland was farmed for two thousand years by the Adena Tribe, which maintained homes in the pocked cliffs up the East Branch of Chimney Top. Sentries were maintained atop the five rock formations surrounding the valley, with fires built and ready to light. If anyone were seen approaching, the sentry would start the fire. Lookouts down in the valley alerted the women and children in the fields, who fled upcreek to their rocky shelters. The maize, squash, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes and other crops provided a valuable supplement to the usual Adena diet of game, berries and fruit.

The Adena were gone before Daniel Boone discovered the Gorge, and Adena Meadow had reverted to forest. But early pioneers moved into the Gorge, and the Ledford family homesteaded this piece of land between Pinch Em Tight and Chimney Top. They recleared the land and cultivated it for another 200 years. There was plenty of water, and every Spring a flooding Red River deposited rich silt on the flat. The Ledford home, barn and various outbuildings stood in the upper right corner of the meadow in the photo above, just left of the bend where the river turns abruptly to the right. The photo was taken looking down from Chimney Top. The trail is under the trees in the fore ground.

When the federal agents began buying up land in the Gorge, the farm had come down to Dottie Ledford and her husband Chester Morrison. They decided that fighting the right of Eminent Domain in the courts was futile, so they offered the government a deal : Rather than sell, they would give the land to the park, in exchange for the right to live on it and farm it until one of them died. Dottie died in 1971, and in 1972 Chester moved to Winchester to live with his son. The family now lives in Nicholasville, and Morrison comes back to visit the Gorge several times a year. The buildings were removed in 1978. The meadow has now grown up in tightly packed, slender 30 year old beech, birch, sycamore, elm and sassafras trees, shown in the photo at left. This is a classic example of succession unfolding. Over the coming decades it will be fascinating to see the trees thin out and the oaks move in. And once the mature forest evolves, it will be the largest level valley floor of any wooded part of the Gorge.

The trail drops down the south flank of Chimney Top Ridge, all the way to the valley floor, then climbs midway up Half Moon Ridge. Half Moon Rock is the formation shown in the photo at right, as seen from Chimney Top. If you look carefully, you can see the trail angling up from lower right toward the center of the picture, then switchbacking back toward the upper right and disappearing over the ridge. If you're into bushwacking, you can leave the trail where it reverses direction, and navigate your way up to the bottom of the rock formation, where several well used routes allow access to the top and a trail leading out to the road.

But the main trail continues over the ridge and drops back down to the top of the old meadow. It will bottom out and follow the creek for half a mile. This is the section that becomes swampy in high water.

The white diamonds on the trees lead you up the valley. You are now walking along West Chimney Top Creek, and you soon come to another crossing. The creek is squeezed here, so it's not as wide but deeper. In high water it can be knee high. The best crossing is just upstream of the trail where several logs provide a dry if somewhat precarious bridge. There are half a dozen of these logs, and they are rearranged by each new high water surge, so you never know what you may find. It may help to rearrange a few, recreating a bridge.

You will then leave the creek behind for an hour or so and head up the hill. This is ironic, because an old Adena trail led directly up the creek valley and if you're in a mood to bushwack, you can easily follow the stream through a very scenic winding route, eventually meeting the maintained trail coming back down off the ridge.

The trail continues along the ridgetop. Rough Trail cuts off to the right, heading toward Pinch Em Tight, while we continue straight, winding along the narrow ridge. We cross a few more rock outcroppings, but none nearly as big as our lunch stop.

Then the trail starts back down, through a dense rhododendron thicket. This is a pretty rugged descent, with the route narrowing and switchbacking several times. But you finally come back down to West Chimney Top Creek and cross it. There are several scenic campsites down here, but they are small and tight, suitable for only one tent each. Be careful at the bottom : the trail crosses the creek and turns right. It appears to start downstream (left), and is not clearly marked.

The climb back up out of the valley to Koomer Ridge is a killer, but it's the last ascent of the day. At the top, a one mile spur heads Souith (right) to Koomer Ridge Campground. But the main trail continues left on out the ridge, then turns and starts another descent, this one to East Chimney Top Creek. It may help to know that this is the last descent of the day.